detractive, adj. 1. belittling, disparaging, demeaning, deflating, derogatory, derogative, derogating, detractory, detracting, depreciatory, depreciative, depreciating, devaluating; humiliating, humbling, mortifying; lampooning, caricaturing, ridiculing, satirizing, mocking, jeering, jibing, sneering; satirical, sarcastic, caustic, biting, vitriolic, acrimonious, scathing; disdainful, derisive, derisory, deriding, snide, contemptuous, scornful.
2. discrediting, disfavorable, unfavorable, disapproving, disapprobatory, disapprobative, critical.
3. defamatory, denigrating, vituperative, vilifying, vilipenditory; slanderous, libelous, calumniatory, calumnious, traducent, false, untrue, maliciously false or untrue, misrepresentative, aspersive, imputative, insinuating; abusive, hurtful, scurrilous, injurious, contumelious, insulting, backbiting, foulmouthed.
detractor, n. 1. belittler, disparager, deprecator, derogator, depredator; lampooner, satirist, muckrak-er, hack; defamer, vilifier, vilipender, denigrator, scandalizer, impugner, asperser, backbiter, maligner, evil-speaker, carper, caviler, Inf. knocker; censor, cen-surer, reviler, castigator, inveigher, reprover, disap-prover, denouncer, railer, curser, execrator, impre-cator, anathematizer, critic.
2. slanderer, libeler, calumniator, traducer, falsifier, liar; mud-slinger, dirt-flinger.
detriment, n. injury, impairment, damage, hurt, harm, wrong, ill, evil; disadvantage, drawback, liability. detrimental, adj. harmful, hurtful, baneful, pernicious, noisome, mischievous; injurious, deleterious, damaging, prejudicial, destructive; disadvantageous, adverse, unfavorable, untoward, inimical. detrition, n. erosion, abrasion, friction. See attrition (def. 1). detritus, n. 1. rock fragments, drift, sediment, alluvium, moraine; pebbles, gravel, grit, pulverulence, sand, powder, dust.
2. debris, flotsam and jetsam, wreckage, ruins, remains, fragments, shards; rubble, rubbish, litter, junk, trash. devastate, v. 1. lay waste, waste, desolate; despoil, Archaic, spoil, spoliate, ravage, harry, pillage, plunder, depredate; ransack, sack, strip, rifle; destroy, blast, wreck, ruin, lay in ruins; demolish, raze, level, gut, obliterate, annihilate, extirpate.
2. (often used figuratively) overwhelm, overpower, vanquish, overmaster, subdue, conquer; destroy, crush, overcome, rout, undo, discomfit.
3. disconcert, take aback, floor; confound, nonplus, discompose, abash; fluster, ruffle, Inf discombobulate; embarrass, chagrin, mortify, humiliate. devastating, adj. 1. destructive, desolating, ruinous, ravaging; plundering, vandalizing, pillaging; extirpative, annihilative, annihilatory.
2. harmful, deleterious, pernicious, baleful, menacing, malign; wasting, enervating, weakening, debilitating; deadly, fatal, lethal.
3. satirical, ironic, caustic, sarcastic, acerbic; biting, cutting, trenchant, stinging; mordant, sardonic, derisive.
4. keen, incisive, sharp, piercing, penetrating. devastation, n. 1. destruction, ruination, holocaust, demolition, ruin, havoc; spoliation, despoliation, despoilment, ravage, pillage, plunder, sack; rapine, ravishment, predation, depredation.
2. desolation, waste, wreckage, ravagement; extermination, extirpation, obliteration, annihilation. develop, v. 1. grow, evolve, increase, fill out, expand, enlarge, swell, wax, become greater or larger; mature, maturate, ripen; bloom, blossom, flower, bear fruit, fructify; sprout, germinate, pullulate, bud, shoot, burst forth, burgeon; extend, distend, stretch, spread, widen.